Charles Dickens

The one great principle of English law is to make business for itself.

Christmas time! That man must be a misanthrope indeed, in whose breast something like a jovial feeling is not roused - in whose mind some pleasant associations are not awakened - by the recurrence of Christmas.

Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childhood days, recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and transport the traveler back to his own fireside and quiet home!

Trifles make the sum of life.

Regrets are the natural property of grey hairs.

I know I do not exaggerate, unconsciously and unintentionally, the scantiness of my resources and the difficulty of my life... I know that, but for the mercy of God, I might easily have been, for any care that was taken of me, a little robber or a vagabond.

A person who can't pay gets another person who can't pay to guarantee that he can pay. Like a person with two wooden legs getting another person with two wooden legs to guarantee that he has got two natural legs. It don't make either of them able to do a walking-match.

I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.

Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.

Although a skillful flatterer is a most delightful companion if you have him all to yourself, his taste becomes very doubtful when he takes to complimenting other people.

There are only two styles of portrait painting; the serious and the smirk.

Never close your lips to those whom you have opened your heart.

There is a wisdom of the head, and a wisdom of the heart.

Although a skillful flatterer is a most delightful companion if you have him all to yourself his taste becomes very doubtful when he takes to complimenting other people.

Subdue your appetites, my dears, and you've conquered human nature.

The New Year, like an infant heir to the whole world, was waited for, with welcomes, presents, and rejoicings.

There is a wisdom of the head, and there is a wisdom of the heart.

I loved her against reason against promise against peace against hope against happiness against all discouragement that could be.

If there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers.

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.

There are not a few among the disciples of charity who require, in their vocation, scarcely less excitement than the votaries of pleasure in theirs.

Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. I was better after I had cried, than before--more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle.

Most men are individuals no longer so far as their business, its activities, or its moralities are concerned. They are not units but fractions.

Death may beget life, but oppression can beget nothing other than itself.

All good ends can be worked out by good means. Those that cannot are bad and may be counted so at once and left alone.

I love these little people and it is not a slight thing when they who are so fresh from God love us.

A boy's story is the best that is ever told.

A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.

Great men are seldom over-scrupulous in the arrangement of their attire.

It is a pleasant thing to reflect upon, and furnishes a complete answer to those who contend for the gradual degeneration of the human species, that every baby born into the world is a finer one than the last.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.

Fan the sinking flame of hilarity with the wing of friendship; and pass the rosy wine.

He had but one eye and the pocket of prejudice runs in favor of two.

The men who learn endurance, are they who call the whole world, brother.

In the little world in which children have their existence, whosoever brings them up, there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt, as injustice.

One always begins to forgive a place as soon as its left behind.

I will honour Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year.

Renunciation remains sorrow, though a sorrow borne willingly.

I never could have done what I have done without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one subject at a time.

I only ask to be free. The butterflies are free.

Dignity, and even holiness too, sometimes, are more questions of coat and waistcoat than some people imagine.

Any man may be in good spirits and good temper when hes well dressed.

The word of a gentleman is as good as his bond and sometimes better.

Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.

Try not to associate bodily defect with mental my good friend except for a solid reason.

The year end brings no greater pleasure then the opportunity to express to you seasons greetings and good wishes. May your holidays and new year be filled with joy.

You will be surprised that he proposed seven times once in a hackney coach once in a boat once in a pew once on a donkey at Tunbridge Wells and the rest on his knees.

Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own.

Whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do it well; whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself completely; in great aims and in small I have always thoroughly been in earnest.

There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast.

Cows are my passion. What I have ever sighed for has been to retreat to a Swiss farm, and live entirely surrounded by cows - and china.

Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth

All of us have wonders hidden in our breasts, only needing circumstances to evoke them.

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else.

It's my old girl that advises. She has the head. But I never own to it before her. Discipline must be maintained.

The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.

Do all the good you can and make as little fuss about it as possible.

Cheerfulness and contentment are great beautifiers and are famous preservers of good looks

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

We forge the chains we wear in life.

When the wind is blowing and the sleet or rain is driving against the dark windows, I love to sit by the fire, thinking of what I have read in books of voyage and travel.

There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.

Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth overlying our hard hearts.

We need never be ashamed of our tears.

Man cannot really improve himself without improving others.

A word in earnest is as good as a speech.

Bring in the bottled lightning, a clean tumbler, and a corkscrew.

Anything that makes a noise is satisfactory to a crowd.

It is the last straw that breaks the camel's back.

Credit is a system whereby a person who can not pay gets another person who can not pay to guarantee that he can pay.

Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with their soul encourages another person to be brave and true.

An idea, like a ghost, must be spoken to a little before it will explain itself.

May not the complaint, that common people are above their station, often take its rise in the fact of uncommon people being below theirs?

I have known a vast quantity of nonsense talked about bad men not looking you in the face. Don't trust that conventional idea. Dishonesty will stare honesty out of countenance any day in the week, if there is anything to be got by it.

There is no substitute for thoroughgoing, ardent, and sincere earnestness.

The more man knows of man the better for the common brotherhood among men.

Papa, potatoes, poultry, prunes and prism, are all very good words for the lips.

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.

Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but “ I hope “ into a better shape.

This is a world of action, and not for moping and droning in.

There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts.

There is a passion for hunting something deeply implanted in the human breast.

Charity begins at home, and justice begins next door.

Credit is a system whereby a person who cant pay gets another person who cant pay to guarantee that he can pay.

It opens the lungs washes the countenance exercises the eyes and softens down the temper so cry away.

Champagne is one of the elegant extras in life.

Blunt tools are sometimes found of use where sharper instruments would fail.

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it for anyone else.

Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but - I hope - into a better shape.

Do you spell it with a "V" or a "W"?' inquired the judge. 'That depends upon the taste and fancy of the speller, my Lord'.

Cheerfulness and contentment are great beautifiers and are famous preservers of good looks.

There is nothing so strong or safe in an emergency of life as the simple truth.

If there were no bad people there would be no good lawyers.

Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.

Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts.

Charity begins at home and justice begins next door.

Annual income twenty pounds annual expenditure nineteen six result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six result misery.

He would make a lovely corpse.

Reflect upon your present blessings—of which every man has many—not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.